Chapter 2: An Unholy Friendship
After our encounter, we found ourselves in the same class the next period. I almost saw that as a personal win. I watched her coming through the door, smiling as she caught me in her line of sight, making her way over to snatch a seat next to me at the back. Time flew past as Mr. Roberts neglected us, copying coaches actions by playing on his phone. Me and Alba found ourselves deep in conversation, lost in a whirlwind of words and laughs. It didn't matter what we talked about, whether it was books, places, local hotspots of the deserted town or school.. I ignored my fellow classmates grudgeful looks as Alba obnoxiously laughed at one of my bad attempts at a joke, it was as if we were in our own world. Before class ended we exchanged phone numbers promising to text each other when we got home.
After Mr. Roberts class, I found my day was brighter than usual. I would accidently catch myself grinning, remembering the past conversation I had with her, and overall just feeling much happier, which was new. I walked through the halls with an estranged sense of confidence.. Feeling like a million dollars.
My last period I noticed Stella stealing glances at me when she thought I was concentrating. The look itself was confusing, it was almost unreadable.. Was it sadness? In all my years of knowing her, I can't recall her ever looking at me like this... I brushed the curious thoughts off, I didn't really care much since it was almost time to leave which meant being able to spend some more time with Alba.
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I walked through the front door, the oddly comforting of my parents arguing with one another caught my attention, but it didn't surprise me, I was so used to it that I just grabbed an apple and headed up to my room. My room wasn't decorated greatly, it had three large bookshelves which neatly displayed all my true crime books. . My king size bed was positioned by my plain wooden desk, with my computer sat on top next to a pot of pencils, on one side and on the other was a small bed drawer, holding an alarm clock with a light that I wanted to replace but couldn't be bothered to try and sell- or move it in general.
I found myself changing and setting my things down in a rush, before jumping on to my bed and getting into a comfortable position. After finding the most comfortable position I grabbed my phone and sent Alba.
"hi"
As if she had been waiting for me to message, I saw that dreaded bubble pop up on my screen.
"hello!"
Our conversation naturally took off. Shifting our focus from one topic to another, which evidently meant we had been rambling on to each other for hours. Soon enough this became a normal day-to-day thing. By the time the next week arrived, I found myself closer to Alba than I had originally expected from our first encounter.
As our relationship developed, so did our conversations. We seemingly drifted away from light hearted topics, sending memes and videos we found amusing to deeper topics. We often found ourselves in a never ending topic of serial killers, often draping over the meaning of life.
As we made it to our second week we moved to long calls. Which lasted hours and allowed me to tone out the arguments and the occasional "F U". We played truth or dare and other I guess "Teenage" games which allowed us to get to know each other a little more. It turns out that she fears people touching eyes. Which is kinda cool I guess and well gives me something to wear for Halloween.
We started to catch the attention of our classmates as we started to hang out more. people for some reason started to treat me more nicely which was a nice change of pace. However there was also a sense of tension when I walked into classrooms with Alba. I didn't know why but the feeling of being glared at constantly felt creepy. Even Stella glared but with a different intention that I couldn't pinpoint.
I also started to lend Alba some of my books to read, which gave us something to talk about.